


Feeling Festive

by Scarlett_Bard



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gryles, M/M, Stymshaw - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 13:08:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1120181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlett_Bard/pseuds/Scarlett_Bard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick swore he'd never wear a novelty Christmas jumper if he had the choice. So when Harry buys him one it probably says a lot that he doesn't go running for the hills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feeling Festive

Nick’s having his third tantrum by the time Harry walks through the front door.  
“Hey!” Harry greets chirpily. “Sorry I’m late I got caught up in town”  
“Do you know how difficult it is to wrap a Buddha statue?” Nick huffs.  
“It looks great!” Harry assures him. Of course they both know this is far from true -at best it looks like a slapdash attempt at origami- and Nick exhales heavily as he stares at the half-wrapped present.  
“I can’t believe you talked me into buying the tackiest wrapping paper in the shop” Nick grumbles.  
“Oh come on, mardy bum! It’s cute!” throwing his heavy winter coat and a large brown paper bag onto the armchair Harry slumps onto the floor next to Nick, gazing with some amount of fondness at the garish Santa-patterned gift wrap.  
“I’ll get you some gift boxes tomorrow” Harry offers breezily.  
“Mm, s’alright for you. You could wrap a Christmas present with your eyes closed” Nick replies. He knows how ridiculous it is to be jealous of something so trivial; but when somebody like Harry -a boy with no practical skill whatsoever- can make Christmas wrapping look like an art form it is a tad annoying.  
“C’mon, you, cheer up” Harry mutters, nuzzling at Nick's neck with his nose and planting a feather-light kiss on the skin that covers his jugular. “We can wrap the presents tomorrow when you’ve got boxes. How about I get us a drink and we can just chill yeah?”. He raises a hand to brush a strand of hair back from Nick’s face; the elder of the two finding the younger’s small sign of affection as heart-warmingly endearing as ever.  
“Go on then” Nick sighs; though whether it is in fake exhaustion or the sheer contentment he gets from Harry’s presence he isn’t entirely sure.

  
A bottle and a half of mulled wine later (and a trip to the corner shop because Harry insisted that “ _mulled wine isn’t mulled wine without sliced orange and apple!_ ”) the pair are curled up together on Nick’s couch; Nick suitably merry from alcohol and almost enjoying the Christmas songs Harry’s singing along to.  
“You really do love the cheesy side of Christmas don’t you?” Nick comments, laughing as Harry launches passionately into the chorus of ‘Last Christmas’.  
“Of course I do! The awful songs, the novelty gifts...” a sudden spark flares up in Harry’s alpine eyes as his sentence trails off, the slight hint of a smile beginning to rise on his face. Detangling his denim-clad legs from Nick’s, Harry strides over to the armchair and begins rummaging in the bag Nick had seen him put down when he arrived.  
“What’ve you bought this time?” Nick questions. He regrets the decision immediately knowing full well that Harry is going to smirk and call him ‘Mum’ as he always does when Nick feigns being a mature, responsible adult.

  
“Calm down, Mum” Harry chides (“ _so predictable_ ” Nick thinks to himself) “I made sure my poor, struggling budget would stretch”. Nick rolls his eyes at Harry’s obvious sarcasm -though admittedly he enjoys the razor-sharp wit Harry shares with him more than anyone else- and again enquires as to what the tipsy teenager had spent his money on. It takes all of two seconds after seeing a bundle of brightly coloured fabric for Nick to register what held Harry up in town.  
“Oh God. You haven’t” groans Nick. Eyes twinkling, Harry holds the bright green fabric in both hands and lifts it in front of him. Yep, the boy had gone and bought himself a Christmas jumper. The kind of luminous Christmas jumper that makes the Santa wrapping paper seem understated. Nick’s horrified stare flits between the Rudolph on the jumper and Harry’s excited face. Sensing Nick’s lack of approval Harry begins pulling the jumper over his head, his voice muffled by the fabric but insistent that the jumper looks better on.  
“Well it couldn’t look much worse. Oh God, Harry, why on Earth did you buy that thing?” Nick asks.  
“They were on sale. Two for fifteen quid I could hardly say no”  
“You’re telling me you bought two of those monstrosities?” Harry’s cheeks flush red (more so than they naturally do when he’s intoxicated) and Nick feels a twinge of guilt at his harsh choice of words. Harry had been about to pull what Nick assumed was the second jumper out for show but now he’s stood scuffing his sock-clad toes against the red rug on the floor.  
“Actually I thought...you know...maybe you and me could both have one” Harry mutters failing to meet Nick’s gaze as the words fall feebly from his lips. Now that he says it aloud it seems ridiculous; and no doubt he looks ridiculous stood in front of Nick wearing a Rudolph jumper. Not that Harry minds playing the fool every once in a while; but it’s so rare for Nick to chastise him that it hurts considerably more on the odd occasion it happens.

  
“That probably wasn't the right word” Nick suggests after several moments of silence.  
“No you’re right, they’re a bit ugly. Just thought it’d be fun really” Harry shrugs. Nick hated seeing Harry shrug off something he was excited about. He gave so much to everybody else the last thing Nick wanted was to be somebody who made Harry feel like he couldn't be himself. Sighing exasperatedly at what he’s about to do Nick pulls himself from the couch and paces over to the insecure figure on the opposite side of the room. Harry’s hands ball tightly around the mass of dark navy wool in his hands as Nick moves closer and it seems to Nick that as Harry twists the fabric he twists Nick’s stomach into guilty knots as well.  
“Come on, love, at least let me try it on?” Nick requests, smiling as Harry’s grip loosens on the sweater. Taking the bundle from him Nick tugs the jumper over his head. Only once it’s on properly does Nick dare look down at the pattern on it and he’s pleasantly relieved that Harry has opted for a modest white bear print.  
“Do you like it?” Harry asks timidly. His hands ball themselves tightly into the sleeves of his jumper and Nick feels yet another sting of regret at launching the younger boy into such insecurity. Closing the minuscule gap between the two of them Nick reaches out to brush the tips of his fingers over the back of Harry's hands; smiling to himself when Harry relaxes the grip on his jumper enough for Nick to entwine their fingers.  
"I love it" Nick replies gently.  
"Really?" Harry asks doubtfully "I've got the receipt I can take it ba-" the rest of the sentence is lost as Nick joins his lips with Harry's, smiling at the way Harry melts into the kiss and squeezes Nick's hands even harder.

  
"Of all the things to spend your money on, popstar" Nick sighs after the kiss has ended, once again eyeing the cartoon reindeer splashed across Harry’s jumper.  
“If you press the nose it lights up” Harry replies, freeing a hand from Nick’s to apply pressure somewhere near the middle of his stomach and looking expectantly at Nick when the nose glows neon red.  
“And to think you won British Style Icon” Nick mutters incredulously. “Still, if anyone could pull off a jumper like that it’d be you”. Harry bristles with joy at the (what he took to be) compliment and nuzzles deeply into Nick’s chest to hide the delighted grin breaking across his face. Of course Nick knows why the boy has buried his face into his chest; can picture the crimson flush of Harry’s cheeks and the deep-set dimples as he grins to himself. The thought alone is enough to make Nick go all warm; too warm to blame it on how much wine he’s consumed. The kind of intense warmth that only occurred when Nick was engulfed by affection for Harry.

  
“I love you” Nick blurts out. Harry lifts his head almost instantly from it’s resting place on Nick’s chest, looking up at him slightly surprised. It’s not like Nick hasn’t said it before -they’ve both moaned it and slurred it and whispered it too many times for Harry to count- no it’s not the words that catch Harry off guard; it’s Nick’s voice. So soft but serious at the same time. His eyes have done the same thing, Harry notices as he looks into them, gone soft and warm like melted chocolate. It makes Harry’s stomach feel all fluttery having Nick look at him like that. Like, despite his awful jumper and silly doubts, Nick really does love him.  
“Even in my Christmas jumper that makes me look like an idiot?” Harry asks because he wants to know if he’s just imagining that twinkle in Nick’s eyes.  
“Even in your Christmas jumper” Nick chuckles. “You might look like an idiot, Styles, but you’re _my_ idiot.” Harry feels himself blush delightedly when Nick emphasises the “my”, a fact Nick notices too; Harry really does look achingly beautiful when the glow of the fairy lights hits his flushed cheeks like that. Bristling happily under Nick’s affectionate gaze Harry kisses him deeply. He’s still thinking about Nick’s words, he loves when he gets possessive. Not least because it makes him feel like he belongs to Nick, but because it means that maybe Nick wants him to belong as well. Harry definitely likes the idea that he could belong with Nick as well as to him. Nick pulls Harry from his train of thought when he eventually prises their lips apart, nuzzling his nose against Harry’s so neither feel that familiar sinking lurch at breaking all physical contact.  
“I love you, Haz” Nick repeats, his voice as sincere as before.  
“I love you too, Nicky” Harry replies honestly before leaning in and latching onto Nick’s lips again where they’ve been dangling so close to his own. He knows that Nick will probably complain later about being called Nicky but right now Harry doesn’t care. He loves Nick and all he wants right now is to show Nick how much. And if that means using ridiculous pet names and cuddling so close that the reindeer on his jumper starts singing ‘Jingle Bells’ then so be it.

 


End file.
